Positive Psychology:

Interventions for Good Life

Rajbir Singh, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology,
M.D. University,
Rohtak (Haryana)

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You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
Any direction you choose

Good life reflects choice and will.

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 Beginning of the Movement

• Positive Psychology movement has grown

so quickly in just 10 years since Seligman
and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) edited the
special issue of American Psychologist on
Positive Psychology.

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 Beginning of the Movement
• “When the pioneers of Positive Psychology were
encountered the question, “So, what do you do for a
living ?” Their previous answers that we are clinical or
counseling psychologists tend to stop conversations; so
they changed their answers to “we are college professors”.
• Now when they announce that they were positive
psychologists, (facilitators) and this unleashes lively and
enjoyable conversations. It portends openness on the part
of lay people to tenets of Positive Psychology.

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 Understanding the New Era
• Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the
virtues and strengths, positive experiences and positive
individual traits that enable individuals and communities
to flourish.
• This field is founded on the belief that people want to
lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is
best within themselves, and enhance their experiences
of love, work and play (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi,
2000).

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 Components of Positive Psychology

• Positive Psychology is an umbrella term for

the study of positive emotions, positive
character traits and enabling institutions.

• Positive emotions entails the study of

contentment with the past, happiness in the
present, and hope for the future.

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 Components of Positive Psychology

• Positive individual traits consists of the study of

the strengths and virtues, such as the capacity
for love and work, courage, compassion,
resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, and
wisdom.

• Positive institutions entails the study of the

strengths that foster better communities, such
as justice, responsibility, civility, work ethic,
leadership, team work, purpose, and tolerance.

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 Conceptual Levels of Positive Psychology

• Three conceptual levels are:

• Virtues
• Character Strengths
• Situational themes

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 Virtues

• Virtues are the core characteristics valued by moral

philosophers and religious thinkers.

• These are universal, perhaps grounded in biology

through an evolutionary process that selected for
these aspects of excellence as means of solving the
important tasks necessary for survival of the species.

• We speculate that all these virtues must be present

at above threshold values for an individual to be
deemed of good character.

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 Classification of Virtues
Classification of 6 Virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)
Virtue Definition
1. Wisdom and Knowledge (II) Cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge

2. Courage (IV) Emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals
in the face of opposition
3. Humanity (I*) Interpersonal strengths that involve “tending and befriending” others

4. Justice (I) Civics strengths that underlie healthy community life

5. Temperance (II) Strengths that protect against excess
6. Transcendence (III) Strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide
meaning

* Ubiquitous ness of High Six

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 Character Strengths
• Character Strengths are the psychological
ingredients……processes or mechanisms…… define
the virtues.

• The virtue of wisdom can be achieved through such

strengths as creativity, curiosity, love of learning,
open mindedness, and what we call perspective……
having a big picture on life. Someone is of good
character if he or she displays 1 or 2 strengths in a
virtue group.

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Classification of Character Strengths
Virtues and Character strengths Virtues and Character strengths

1. Wisdom and Knowledge 4. Justice

Creativity Fairness
Curiosity Leadership
Open-mindedness Teamwork
Love of learning 5. Temperance
Perspective
Forgiveness
2. Courage Modesty
Authenticity Prudence
Bravery Self- Regulation
Persistence 6. Transcendence
Zest
Appreciation of beauty and
3. Humanity excellence
Kindness Gratitude
Love Hope
Social intelligence Humor
Religiousness

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 Character Strengths
• A various fulfillments that constitute the good life,
for oneself and for others. Although strengths and
virtues determine how an individual copes with
adversity, our focus is on how they fulfill an
individual.

• Although strengths can and do produce desirable

outcomes, each strength is morally valued in its own
right, even in the absence of obvious beneficial
outcomes.

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 Outcome of Character Strengths
• Character strengths produce more than their own reward, that their
exercise reduces the likelihood of distress and dysfunction while
encouraging tangible outcomes like:

• Subjective well-being (happiness)

• Acceptance of oneself
• Reverence of life
• Competence, efficacy, and mastery
• Mental and physical health
• Rich and supportive social networks
• Respect by and for others
• Satisfying work
• Material sufficiency
• Healthy communities and families

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 Signature Strengths
Everyone can readily identify a handful of
strengths as very much their owns, typically
between three and seven)
• a sense of ownership and authenticity viz a viz the
strength
• a feeling of excitement while displaying it, particularly
at first
• a rapid learning curve as themes are attached to the
strength and practiced
• a sense of yearning to act in accordance with the
strength

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 Signature Strengths (contd….)

• a feeling of inevitability in using the strength, as if one

cannot be stooped or dissuaded from its display
• the discovery of the strength as owned in epiphany
• invigoration rather than exhaustion when using the
strength
• the creation and pursuit of fundamental projects that
revolve around the strength
• intrinsic motivation to use the strength

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 Situational Themes
• Situational themes are the specific habits that
lead people to manifest given character
strengths, e.g., work themes, family themes
etc.
• Themes per se are neither good nor bad; they
can be used to achieve strengths and hence
contributes to virtues.
• Socio-cultural variations exist at the level of
themes, less at the level of strengths and not
at all at the level of virtues.

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 Fundamental Dilemma

• Key tenet of Positive Psychology.

• The desire to accentuate (emphasize) the good in life.
• A puzzle (thorniest of all problems) for positive psychologists:
why does negative information seem to be more powerful for
people than positive information (i.e., “ bad is stronger than
good”) ? Roy Baumeister, a Social Psychologist (2001).
• The good life is not ephemeral. It does not result from the
momentary tickling of our sensory receptors by alcohol,
chocolate, vacations or having sex. The good life is lived
across situations and over time. How? and Why?

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 Overcoming Life Challenges
• How to overcome the life’s many challenges? What are the
“naturally occurring” personal and environmental resources to
overcome?
• By developing resilience, i.e., “bouncing back” a positive process
(Masten and Reed, 2002), a class of phenomena characterized by
patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant
adversity or risk.
• How and when people call upon particular resources when facing
risks and disadvantages?
• At present, it can be suggested what might work, but no definite
formula can be described for the operation of resilience.

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 Good Adaptation
• What is good adaptation?
• To maintain or regain normative levels of functioning
and avoid significant problems in spite of adversity.
• External adaptation- meeting the social,
educational, and occupational expectations of
society.
• Internal adaptation- positive psychological well
being (and not simply emotional and intra-psychic
adaptation).

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 Strategies for Promoting Resilience

• Risk Focused Strategies:

• preventing/ reducing Risk and Stressors
• Reduce drinking, smoking or drug use through
community.
• Asset-Focused Strategies:
• Provide a tutor /mentor
• Organize a club
• Build a recreation center

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Strategies for Promoting Resilience (contd….)
• Process Focused Strategies:
• Mobilizing the power of Human Adaptational System
• Build Self-efficacy through graduated success model of teaching
• Teach effective coping strategies for specific threatening situations
• Foster secure attachment relationships, home visit program
• Nurture mentoring relationships
• Encourage friendships, healthy activities, such as extracurricular
activities.
• Support cultural traditions, with pro-social adults, where elders
teach ethnic traditions of dance.

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 Overcoming Anything in Life
• There is no timeline, no set period, for finding
strength, resilient behaviors and coping skills.
• Faith --- be it in the future, the world at the end of
the power lines, or in a highest power – is an
essential ingredient. Ability to perceive bad times as
temporary times gets great emphasis from Seligman
as an essential strength.
• Most resilient people don’t do it alone – in fact, they
don’t even try. That people cope well with adversity,
if they don’t have a strong family support system, are
far more likely to talk to friends and even coworkers
about events in their lives.

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 Overcoming Anything in Life (contd….)
• Setting goals and planning for the future are strong factor(s) in
dealing with adversity. It may minimize the adversity itself.
• Believing in oneself and recognizing one’s strengths is important.”
you pick yourself up, give yourself value,” Brown Says. “If you
can’t change a bad situation, you can at least nurture yourself.
Make yourself a place for intelligence and competence, surround
yourself with things that help you stabilize, and remember what
you’re trying to do”.
• And it is equally important to actually recognize one own
strengths. Many people don’t. Teaching them such self-
recognition is a major part of the approach.

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Werner’s Study (Mother of resiliency research)
• Emmy Werner and Ruth Smith (1982, 1992) identified resilient people.
• Involved a cohort of 700 children born on the island of Kauai (Hawaii)
from 1955 to 1995.
• Data were collected from the children and adult caregivers.
• At birth 1/3rd were considered high risk for academic and social problems
(e.g., poverty, parental alcoholism, and domestic violence).
• 1/3rd of them appeared to be invulnerable to the undermining risk
factors.
• Two primary characteristics accounted for the resiliency:
• They were born with outgoing dispositions, and
• They were able to engage several sources of support (better care
during infancy, intelligence, and perceptions of self worth).

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 Werner’s Study

• Other 2/3rd did develop significant problems in their

childhood and adolescence by their mid thirties, majority
(80%) of them had bounced back.
• Rest ultimately bounced back by their forth decade of life.
Many of those attributed their buoyancy to the support of
one caring adult (e.g., a family member, neighbor, teacher,
and mentor).
• So, attend inward ones, have patience, give support.
• Past experience with adversity – influence bouncing back.

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Terman’s Life Cycle Study of Gifted Children
• Studied 1500 intellectually gifted children (IQ
≥ 140) of California schools.
• Participants nicknamed themselves the
“Termites”.
• Participants were physically hardy during
childhood, healthier than their peers, most of
them graduated with secured professional
jobs.
• Many were productive in their jobs, and few
went on to be national leaders.
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Terman’s Life Cycle Study of Gifted Children

• However, high childhood IQs did not guarantee adult success

and better mental health.
• On the negative side of human functioning, they had
catasphorizing explanatory style (explaining bad event with
global causes) which predicted risks of mortality in the sample
of healthy children mediated by lifestyle choices.
• Genius IQ level and good childhood health do not protect
individuals from making bad choices that lead to poor health
and premature death.

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Valliant’s Harvard Study of Adult Development
Mapped out and refined six tasks –
• Identity- is typically developed during adolescence or early
adulthood, when people’s views, values, and interests being
to become their own rather than a reflection of their
caregiver’s beliefs.
• intimacy –with the development of identity, a person is more
likely to seek an interdependent , committed relationship
with another person and thereby achieve intimacy.
• career consolidation-is a life task that requires development
of a social identity. Engagement with a carrier is characterized
by contentment, compensation, competence and
commitment.

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Valliant’s Harvard Study of Adult Development

• Generativity- regarding task associated with generativity, people

become involved in the building of a broader social circle through a
“giving away” of self.
• Keeper of meaning-in the context of a larger social circle , some people
take on the task of becoming keepers of meaning . the keeper of
meaning has perspective on the working of the world and of people ,
and this person is willing to share that wisdom with others.
• Integrity- finally, achieving the task of developing integrity brings peace
to a person’s life. In this stage, increased spirituality often accompanies
a greater sense of contentment with life.

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Valliant’s Harvard Study of Adult Development

• Mastery of these tasks is the object of

adulthood.
• Intentional work on each of these tasks leads
sequentially to work on the next task, and
the mastery of all tasks is the essence of
successful aging.

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• Lao-Tzu seems to advise against wisdom,
justice and humanity – the very virtues.
• Reject sageness and abandon knowledge,
The people will benefit a hundredfold,
Reject humanity and abandon justice,
The people will return to filial piety and
parental love.

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The best ruler, the people only
Know of his existence….
The best ruler is so relaxed, he hardly talks,
When he successfully completes his work,
People all say that for us, it is only natural.

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 Thank You

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